No Plan to Corporatise Ordnance Factory Board, Position Clear to Employees:

New Delhi: The Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik said that during the past two decades, several High Level Committees like TKA Nair Committee, Vijay Kelkar Committee & Raman Puri Committee have inter alia recommended that Ordnance Factories should be converted from a Government Department into a Corporate entity.

The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is an attached office of Department of Defence Production, Government of India. There is no plan at present for strategic tie-up between private sector and OFB.

In respect of non-core items, OFB can still participate in requests for proposal (RFPs) of the users, i.e. Armed Forces, on a competitive basis. The decision to declare items as non-core was taken in consultation with all stake holders, and was made to enable OFB to focus on core areas and complex systems like artillery guns, tanks, and ammunition. This position has been adequately explained to the employees of OFB through various meetings in the Ministry.

Further, in order to ensure smooth transition from non-core to core areas for production, retraining of workers of non-core factories has also commenced to enable them to work in the core areas.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik in a written reply to Vaiko in Rajya Sabha on 2 December.

Source: ID

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